The 3rd Justice and Development Party Extraordinary Congress took place on 20 and 21 May 2017 in order to elect a party leader and members to the party congress of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The party's founder and first leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was the only candidate for the post, having left the leadership upon his election as President in 2014. Having been initially required to sever his political party relations on grounds of impartiality, a constitutional referendum in 2017 turned Turkey into an executive presidency, allowing Erdoğan to return to the AKP and become its leader.